Winter 2020/2021
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Lebanon Township News Winter 2020/2021 Recreation Commission and Historians Committee December, January, February ********* Best wishes to all for a very happy holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year! ********* Municipal Building 530 West Hill Road (908) 638-8523 Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM Winter 2020/2021 Page 2 Recreation Commission Halloween Madness 2020 Lebanon Township DPW and the Lebanon Township Fire Department and EMS crews for assisting with parking cars and Many organizations and individuals helped orchestrate keeping our children safe. Halloween Madness 2020 and we couldn't have done it without their support. Thank you Patrolman Adrian LaRowe and Fire Gratefully, Official Gary Apgar for directing traffic, Police Chief Erik The Lebanon Township Recreation Commission Volunteers ~ Rautenberg, Kathy Goracy and Sergeant Jason Cronce for Jill Davis, Donna Guzzino, Laurie Hoffman, Darin McDowell, judging our costume parade and car decorating contests, Maria Naccarato and Meredith Tyers Winter 2020/2021 Page 3 Recreation Commission Halloween Madness 2020 Every year, traditions usher in a trick or a treat Dressed up in costumes and looking to scare, Memorial Park was the place to meet. 2020 is a little different, the world slowed its roll, things stopped for a bit, the virus has taken its toll. But Lebanon Township neighbors, resilient are we, COVID-19 wasn’t going to stop our party! Staying safe by following the guidelines, We donned our masks and stayed apart. We still had our fun, While making good choices and being smart. Happy, sugar loaded children surrounded, Laughter and spirit abounded! Creative costumes, carved pumpkins, decorated cars How lucky to live in this community of ours! For the food pantry you brought extra snacks, Thank you for your donations, Many are grateful for your thoughtful acts. We know this mess is such a bummer, But one day it will come to an end. Thank you Lebanon Township families, Despite it all, we’re happy you decided to attend. One day we’ll look back and cherish the memories made, And the extraordinary community spirit displayed. 10 AND 20 YARD DUMPSTERS AVAILABLE FOR SUMMER CLEAN-UP! Winter 2020/2021 Page 4 Historians A Look Back at the Past Lebanon Township was settled mainly by the Germans in the first half of the 18th century along with the English, Scots and Irish. However, it was the Lenni Lenape who inhabited Hunterdon County along with the rest of New Jersey, Delaware, southern New York and eastern Pennsylvania long before the arrival of the Europeans. We are fortunate to have a great deal of historical documentation that provides insight into Lebanon Township’s early beginnings. Written records, photographs, first hand accounts from personal diaries, letters and postcards, meeting minutes and general store ledgers all tell a story about the creation of this community and the people who called it home. On the other hand, the Lenape Indians who lived here well before our time had no written history, aside from petroglyphs and pictographs. Petroglyphs The Jennings Petroglyph housed in the Walsh Library at Seton were carved and scraped into stone surfaces. The Jennings Hall University. Petroglyph, discovered in 1965 along the Delaware River in Native American village sites found in the Musconetcong Valley. (Continued on page 5) Winter 2020/2021 Page 5 Historians (Continued from page 4) Sussex County, is a great example of an important local prehistoric rock carving. Pictographs were painted on natural surfaces such as wood, fabric, bark and other organic materials that unfortunately decayed from exposure or use. Since the European colonists did not understand their language or appreciate their culture, very little written documentation on the Lenape remains today. Fortunately, through investigation and extensive research, archeologists, historians and anthropologists have been able to learn about the aboriginal occupation of this area. The Musconetcong Valley, which is defined as the area flanked by the Musconetcong and Schooley’s Mountain ridges to the southeast, and the Pohatcong and Allamuchy Mountain ridges to the northwest, was inhabited by the Munsee band of the Lenape. They were known as the “People of the Stony Country”. It’s a sure bet that to this day, Lebanon Township farmers, gardeners or anyone who’s tried to put a shovel in the ground, can relate to this reference to our rugged soil. The Lenni Lenape, who inhabited this area as late as the early 1700s, created trails which were used for traversing the mountainous terrain of Hunterdon County. Later, many of these paths were used by colonists settling in the area and eventually evolved into some of the same roads we use today. One of the trails that crossed nearby was the Malayelick path. It was near the village of Pelouesse, which was located in present day The Village of Pelouesse plaque at Hampton Borough Park Hampton and across Route 31 on the Warren County side along was dedicated in 2011. the banks of the Musconetcong River. A series of semi- permanent agricultural villages existed up and down the river where the indigenous people made their home for a number of years, before exhausting the land and moving on. Access to water and fertile soil were primary factors in the locations they favored. Not far from Lebanon Township, the largest known Paleo-Indian site in New Jersey (22 acres) was discovered in the early 1950s along the banks of the Musconetcong River in Asbury. The Paleo-Indian period in the Northeast lasted from about 12,000 BC to 10,000 BC. According to local archaeologist Herbert Kraft, indigenous people may have been attracted to the site for a number of factors: raw material availability, strategic point of animal migration, proximity to water and plant resources, and warmer seasonal temperatures. Kraft wrote numerous books about the Lenni Lenape and Paleo-Indians of New Jersey. In 1982, he donated a significant number of local Native American artifacts to the Lebanon Township Museum, which are on display on the second floor. For Native Americans, the land held spiritual and practical significance and was shared by all living creatures. Like air, sun and water, it was an essential ingredient in life. In contrast, the Europeans viewed land as property to be owned, to be bought, The Plenge Archaeological Site marker located in Asbury. sold, divided and inherited. In their homeland, Europeans didn’t have the right to fish, hunt, farm, to take firewood or use land (Continued on page 6) Winter 2020/2021 Page 6 Historians (Continued from page 5) Hunters of the Past for recreational purposes without permission from the landowner. As it does for us today, the law protected property Hunting season is underway here in New Jersey and that’s got owner’s rights. But here in the New World, this idea of land us thinking about the hunting memorabilia in our archive. Do ownership was foreign to the Lenape, and as a result, it led to a you recognize the barn and hilly roadway in the image below? tenuous co-existence. While the colonists understood their gifts That’s Waldy Bagat’s farm on Hickory Run Road. These folks to be a means to trade for land, the Lenape saw them as an didn't have much help in regards to clothing, gear, and offering with the intention to share the land and co-exist. With electronics back then. No big cozy blind to keep the cold wind the language barrier, it must have been impossible for the Lenni off of you. No scent killers. No scopes. No camo! -Lenape to understand that they were signing away their land for trinkets. And those cars! We just can’t help but swoon over images like this, beautiful scenes of another era in Lebanon Township. Two In the end, the reality is, a lot of land was taken without decades after these photos were taken, Waldy’s generosity was permission. Over 150,000 acres were traded with metal knives instrumental in the development of the Hickory Run Family and pots, clothing, blankets, barrels of rum or hard cider, guns, Practice on Route 513. powder, and shot. This allowed for European settlers to enter into Hunterdon County in the early 18th century. By 1760, Every hunt has something about it that makes it special to the nearly all the Lenape had left New Jersey, forced to leave their people who experienced it. Photographs like these that preserve native lands, never again living as they had before the arrival of a memory, a place and time, give us a glimpse of what our the Europeans. community was once like. Have a hunting story or photo to share? The historians would love to hear from you. Send an email to [email protected]. Winter 2020/2021 Page 7 Winter 2020/2021 Page 8 Museum Dr. Howard Andrew Knox received his medical doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1908 and then accepted a position as a First Lieutenant in the US Army's newly formed Medical Reserve Corps. He retired from the military and began a private practice while studying and publishing articles on psychology and intelligence testing. In 1912, he was rehired by the Army and took a position administering intelligence tests at Ellis Island. Dr. Knox’s groundbreaking work took language and cultural differences into consideration when administering intelligence tests to immigrants. His research, including the development of his Knox Cube Imitation Test, has served as an important link to present-day intelligence testing. In 1922, he moved to New Hampton and opened a private practice in his home on Musconetcong River Road. He died in 1949 and was buried at the Musconetcong Valley Cemetery in From the Museum … Hampton.